of Nags Head Woods Preserve marsh pennywort & duckweed partidgeberry

GROUNDCOVER & AQUATIC PLANTS: RESOURCES: partridgeberry - Mitchella repens Manual of the Vascular Flora of Nags Head Woods, Outer Banks, • Size: less than 2" high, with white, fragrant, tubular flowers in pairs. North Carolina by Alexander Krings • The small, rounded are evergreen; the flowers are white and trumpet shaped, eventually turning into scarlet berries showing two USDA Plants Database: plants.usda.gov small marks from the flowers. Another common name is the twinberry. Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center: www.wildflower.org • Also known as the pigeon plum, the partridgeberry attracts a variety University of Michigan - Dearborn, Native American of birds and mammals, including the Bobwhite quail and the Ethnobotany: herb.umd.umich.edu White-footed mouse. • The partridgeberry has historically been used for medicinal purposes, Rutgers University, Duckweed: Environmental Star: including as a tea to reduce menstrual cramps and www.rutgers.edu/about-rutgers/make-way-duckweed southern wax myrtle labor pains. duckweed - Lemna valdiviana Phil. • Size: very small, less than 1", often mistaken for algae, duckweed is actually an aquatic herb. Each consists of one or more fronds. The fronds look like little leaves, but are actually a combination of PHOTOS: and stem. A little rootlet dangles into the water from the marsh pennywort & duckweed, live oak, sassafras, partidgeberry, swamp bay and underside of the frond. southern wax myrtle photos by: Leah Pederson, 2014 • Duckweed is a , but rarely does so, typically american holly: Robert H. Mohlenbrock, hosted by the USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database reproducing through budding from a parent plant. Eventually the new / USDA NRCS. 1995. Northeast wetland flora: Field office guide to plant species. fronds grow their own roots and break off to become independent Northeast National Technical Center, Chester. plants. swamp bay american holly loblolly: Doug Goldman, hosted by the USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / • Duckweed serves as a source of food for ducks, as the name implies, USDA-NRCS-NPDT as well as other birds, fish and turtles. Duckweed has gotten american beautyberry: Robert H. Mohlenbrock, hosted by the USDA-NRCS PLANTS attention recently as a natural method of waste water treatment and Database / USDA SCS. 1991. Southern wetland flora: Field office guide to plant as biomass for possible energy production. species. South National Technical Center, Fort Worth. marsh pennywort - umbellata or Hydrocotyle verticillata flowering dogwood: Robert H. Mohlenbrock, hosted by the USDA-NRCS PLANTS • Size: measuring ½ to 1 ½" across, occasionally mistaken for a small Database / USDA NRCS. 1995. Northeast wetland flora: Field office guide to plant lilypad, the marsh pennywort is a creeping plant from which a thin species. Northeast National Technical Center, Chester. stem lifts a rounded, scalloped leaf. • Clusters of tiny, greenish-white flowers rise from leaf axils from April american beautyberry loblolly pine through September (umbellata, taller stems) or May through July (verticillata, shorter stems) • The pennywort may grow in shallow ponds or low, moist For more information, visit depressions. nature.org/nhw or call (252) 441.2525.

FOLLOW US: Facebook.com/nagsheadwoods Plants of Nags Head Woods Preserve beautyberry produces juicy berries that ripen in late August or September and remain on the branches long after the leaves have Nags Head Woods Preserve has been described as a biological dropped. The berries are consumed by many species of birds gem, with more than 550 plant species identified in its dunes, including Bobwhite quails, Mockingbirds, Robins, Towhees, and Brown interdunal ponds, swamps, marshes, shoreline and deciduous Thrashers as well as raccoons, Gray foxes, opossums, and White- forest. Maritime forests like Nags Head Woods provide tailed deer. conditions favorable for a variety of plants to thrive because of flowering dogwood - (Cornus florida) the protection from high winds, overwash, and salt spray. This • Size: typically 20 t0 40' tall. Leaves are forest is a transition zone between the more broad-leaf opposite, simple, medium-green in color, 3" to 6" long and less than 2.75" wide. evergreen forests of the south and the temperate deciduous The veins follow the elliptic curve of the forests of the north. As you explore the Nags Head Woods, leaf (arcuate). Autumn foliage turns red watch for the following flora that contribute generously to the or purple. The flowers are predominantly longevity and beauty of this forest: white. The fruit are yellow to red live oak berrylike drupes that contain one to two cream-colored, ellipsoid seeds. Flowers appear between March and June, with EVERGREEN TREES & SHRUBS: or before the leaves, and persist for 2 to swamp bay - (Persea palustris) flowering dogwood american holly - (Ilex opaca) 4 weeks. Characterized by a rounded • Size: Averaging 15 to 25' tall with a trunk diameter of 6 to 18"; it grows • Size: Height is typically 15 to 30', with 100' potential, but may stay crown and horizontal branches that best in coastal forests in swampy, wet sites. shrub-sized on coastal beaches. Diameter can be up to 2'. spread wider than its height. • Swamp bay leaves are 3 to 6" long by ¾ to 1½" wide and are elliptical or • Dense, spiny foliage provides shelter and habitat for songbirds. • The “flowers” are not flowers but attractive, notched bracts designed to lance-shared and leathery. The leaves are also fragrant and are lure pollinators toward the tree’s true flowers. These small, yellow • Firm, red berries are consumed by White-tailed deer and 18 species of frequently used for seasoning soups and meat. blooms are located in a tight cluster at the center of the bracts. After a birds; maturing in autumn and remaining attached in winter • Light green flowers in the spring, and bitter, blue/black fruit that flower is pollinated, its bracts droop and fall and its fertilized ovaries • Small (¼" wide) white flowers in spring matures in the autumn and serves as a food source for various birds. form a cluster of small fruits. In autumn, the red fruit of the dogwood is live oak - (Quercus virginiana) • The wood is prized for use in cabinetry due to its ability to take a shine, a favorite for birds, which distribute the dogwood’s seeds. • Size: Averaging 50', but with a potential height of 100’. Diameter can and the swamp bay is also a larval host for the Palamedes swallowtail • Many birds, as well as the White-footed mouse, Gray fox, Gray squirrel, be up to 4'. butterfly. and White-tailed deer readily consume flowering dogwood seeds. Rabbits and deer also browse its leaves and sprouts. • With a trunk buttressed at the base, the live oak grows nearly southern wax myrtle - (Morella cerifera) horizontal, with long branches resulting in a very broad, • Size: Can grow to 40', but is generally 12' or less. It does well in sandy • The flowering dogwood is a soil improver - its leaves decompose more dense crown. soil, tolerates brackish conditions and, while it needs significant quickly than most other species. • Dark-green, waxy, unlobed leaves fall just as new leaves emerge in the moisture early on, eventually is drought resistant. sassafras - (Sassafras albidum) spring. The coordinated leaf loss means it is not actually a true • A wispy, multi-trunked, perennial shrub, the wax myrtle has a gray to • Size: The trees are 30 to 60' tall and evergreen. nearly white trunk, and pale-olive, fragrant foliage. It serves as a larval spread from 2 to 26'. Young trees have • Excellent for erosion control in sandy soil and is resistant to salt spray host for the Banded hairstreak and Red-banded hairstreak butterflies. greenish bark, while older trees have • Acorns: typically less than 1", and with an oblong shape; an important • The female wax myrtle produces pale blue berries in the winter. The reddish brown bark that is rough and food source for White-tailed deer, squirrels, and a berries serve as food for birds and, historically, were boiled down to deeply ridged. variety of birds produce fragrant candle wax. • Bright-green, mitten-shaped, oval, or three-lobed leaves turn to bright yellow loblolly pine - (Pinus taeda) and orange in the fall. • Size: Standing 60 to 110' tall, with a trunk diameter of up to 2 to 3', the DECIDUOUS TREES & SHRUBS: • This aromatic plant has been used for a loblolly is a fast-growing pine, a native of the southeastern U.S., and is american beautyberry - (Callicarpa americana, aka mulberry) wide range of medicinal and culinary sassafras often grown for pulpwood and lumber. • Size: typically 3 to 6' tall, that thrives in forests with hot, humid purposes. It’s wood is light but durable, • Needles are fragrant, 5 to 10" long, and grow in bundles of three. summers and moderate winters. and useful for boat construction. • Loblolly comes from the old British dialect, and the word is used to • Perennial shrub, the leaves are 3 to 6" long, elliptical-shaped with • Sassafras berries grow on red stalks and ripen to dark blue in late mean “a mud hole; a mire,” a sense derived from an allusion to the saw-toothed edges. The underside of the leaf may be covered with summer, providing nourishment to birds, such as the quail, Kingbirds, consistency of porridge. rust-colored or white woolly hairs. Crested flycatchers, Mockingbirds, Pileated woodpeckers, Yellow- • Cones: 3 to 5" long, the loblolly cone opens at maturity, but remains • The roots, leaves, berries, bark and branches have all been used for throated warblers and Phoebes, which, in turn, disperse the seeds. attached to the tree. The seeds are a food source for some birds and assorted medicinal purposes in the past. Rabbits and squirrels also eat the fruit, bark and wood. small mammals. • With inconspicuous flowers of pink, or white in the spring, the